How Charles packed his prize pigs off to Italy... and they came back as ham costing £80 per lb

Prince Charles, who is known for his love of organic food, has sent two pigs to Italy to be cured and smoked

He is notoriously picky about his food and where it comes from. No bad thing, some might say, given the developments of the past week.

And in his quest for perfection, Prince Charles has sent two of his rare breed pigs to Italy to be turned into some of the finest ham known to man, cured in a medieval cellar with the help of the fog from a nearby river.

Sending pork to be cured at a 14th-century Italian estate and smoked for more than two years is likely to be beyond most budgets – transport costs alone were probably around £700 – and may even be considered a little eccentric.

However, the venture certainly accords with Charles’s love of small scale and organic food production.

The Prince revealed details of his project on a visit to Borough Market on Thursday when he discovered that trader John Elliot of The Ham and Cheese Company shared the same supplier for their culatello di zibello, a type of cured ham unique to the Bassa Parmense region near Cremona.

The Mail’s inquiries have revealed that around three years ago the Prince sent two rare breed pigs reared on Home Farm, his organic estate in Gloucestershire, to be turned into the delicacy. One a Tamworth and one a Large Black, they were slaughtered humanely in the UK before being dispatched to Europe.

Charles is patron of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, formed in 1973 to protect endangered livestock which were being abandoned in favour of more profitable breeds.

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Tamworth, thought to be descended from wild boar, are one of the oldest breeds in the country, while the Large Black was popular in the early 1900s and is the only UK pig that’s entirely black.

The carcasses were taken to the picturesque estate of producer Massimo Spigaroli, on the banks of the River Po. He still uses a cellar built specifically for curing meats, which has just one small north-facing window to let in the river fog which prevents the meat from drying out too much.

The meat is hung to age for around 30 months. More than 1,000 different types of bacteria are encouraged to develop, helping to create a savoury and intensely aromatic flavour. Each ham sells for 300 euros – around £258 – to suppliers and retails for around £80 per lb in UK shops.

Prince Charles has sent two rare pigs, a Tamworth (left) and a Large Black (right) to a 14th-century Italian estate to be smoked and cured

Mr Spigaroli confirmed yesterday that he had helped the Prince out by curing his pigs, using any leftovers to make salami and pancetta which he also sent back.

‘He heard about us when he was given one of our hams as a present. He was impressed so he wanted to know how it was made,’ he said.

‘He hasn’t so far been to our farm, but he invited my brother and I to his farm in Wales [another estate owned by the prince].

‘He was extremely hospitable and very curious about our methods. He sent over a pair of animals to our farm, as a test run.

‘He wrote us a letter personally to say he had eaten the hams and was very happy with them. We didn’t charge him. When you’re from a long line of peasant farmers like my brother and I, and you get asked to prepare a ham for a prince – it’s one of life’s great experiences.’